


City Lights

by thelittlestmoonjelly



Category: Leverage
Genre: Blankets, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hot Chocolate, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Post-Series, Trans Character, nonbinary eliot spencer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 14:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11946564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelittlestmoonjelly/pseuds/thelittlestmoonjelly
Summary: Parker has been having difficulty sleeping since Nate and Sophie left and has taken to sitting on the roof of the apartment building late at night. Eliot and Hardison join her to try and find out what's wrong.





	City Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Nate and Sophie are mentioned, but aren't present.  
> In this fic Eliot is nonbinary and uses they/them/their pronouns because I really like that headcanon.

Parker gracefully pulled herself out of the opening of the air duct and onto the roof of the apartment building. After a quick scan of her surroundings to ensure that she was alone, Parker turned around and pulled a large blanket out of the air duct, wrapping it around herself and shivering slightly. It was starting to get too cold to do this, and soon it would be snowy and Parker’s blanket would get wet. For now, though, she sat on the edge of the roof and peered at the city lights of Portland.

She’d been doing this for weeks, ever since Nate and Sophie left. Every night she’d fall asleep with Hardison and Eliot in their bed and wake up a few hours later, feeling sad and kind of antsy. Then she’d move into the air ducts because they were familiar and the distance between her and the real world made her feel better. Parker was pretty sure she woke up Eliot every time, but they hadn’t mentioned it yet. She would only be able to sleep for a little while in the air ducts before waking up feeling sad and antsy again and moving to the roof. It was nice on the roof. She had a pleasant view far away from the worries of life and the chill of the night air filling her lungs made her feel refreshed.

Parker exhaled and watched her breath curl away from her, as the city moved and breathed down below, the lights brighter than the stars she knew were hidden in the darkened sky above. She sat alone for a few minutes, just thinking things over, and then she heard the roof access door open and close behind her. Parker continued to stare out at the city as she listened to Eliot’s footsteps as they crossed the roof to her. Eliot sat down on the edge of the roof next to her and offered one of the cups of hot chocolate in their hands to her. She accepted it and offered some of her blanket in return, which Eliot gladly wrapped around their shoulders. They sat in silence and Parker moved so she’s leaned against Eliot, who leaned back into her.

A few minutes later, the roof door opened and closed again. Eliot tensed and checked over their shoulder to see who was there, but Parker didn’t bother because she knew it was Hardison. Eliot, upon seeing him, relaxed and turned back to face the city. Parker listened as Hardison shuffled over to them and sat on the other side of her with a yawn, a mug of hot chocolate in his hand. She offered him some blanket and he accepted it with a smile and a kiss on the head. Hardison reached his arm around Parker’s waist and gently rubbed his thumb against her back. Parker sighed contentedly, grateful to have these two wonderful people in her life.

They sat together like that for a while: sipping hot chocolate and keeping each other warm under Parker’s blanket. Eventually Hardison sets down his mug and turns slightly to better face Parker.

“Do you want to talk about what’s been bothering you lately?” he asked gently.

Parker sighed and looked down into her lap. “I don’t know...” she responded. The three of them had been working on sharing their feelings and being honest with each other now that they were together, but Parker still had trouble coming up with the right words sometimes. Eliot nudged her a little and they gave Parker a small smile when she looked up: silent encouragement to keep going and try her best. Parker smiled back and took a deep breath.

“Ever since Nate and Sophie left just been feeling really weird, like, weird-bad-weird.”

“What do you mean by weird-bad-weird?” Hardison asked.

“It’s like,” Parker sighed, “it’s like I’m sad because Nate and Sophie are gone and I miss them and I want them to come back, but I feel guilty because I know that I shouldn’t want that because they’re happy and they’re my friends and I should want them to be happy-” a few tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes as she began to cry and. Through her tears, Parker continued “-but I miss them. I miss how Sophie would help me with social stuff and grifter stuff that I didn’t understand and I miss how they care about me and about us and I miss spending time with them. Now that it’s just the three of us and I’m the mastermind, I have to take care of us and make sure the jobs go well and if they don’t go well and something happens to one of you then it’s all my fault.”

Hardison pulled her in tighter and Eliot wrapped their arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sorry you miss Nate and Sophie so much. I do too,” Hardison said softly.

“Me too,” Eliot added.

“And I understand why you feel guilty about those feelings– it can be hard when you want your friends to be happy, but they want to be happy somewhere else– but you’re allowed to miss people. Just because you miss them doesn’t mean you want them to be unhappy, it just means you want them to be happy with you,” Hardison finished.

Parker paused for a few moments and considered his words before nodding her head slightly in agreement and sniffling.

“And It’s not your job to take care of us and make sure nothing goes wrong or happens to us,” Eliot said.

“Yeah,” Hardison agreed.

“That’s _my_ job,” Eliot said.

“Wait, hold on, that’s not _your_ job, that’s _my_ job,” countered Hardison.

“Dammit, Hardison. I promised Nate and Sophie that I was going to watch out for you two and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. It’s _my_ job.”

“Okay, but I’m the one who has to hack the security systems and create airtight identities for every case.”

“Hey!” Parker called before the argument could get out of hand. After a beat, she continued, “Maybe it’s all of our jobs. To look out for each other, I mean. We’re a team.”

Eliot and Hardison looked at her and then at each other for a moment. Neither thought about all the times they had saved the team, but about all the times the team had saved them.

“Yeah, maybe it is.” Eliot said with a small smile.

“A team.” Hardison replied and squeezed Parker’s hand.

They cuddled back together under Parker’s blanket, frozen in time for a moment as the city continued to turn. As Eliot leaned their weight against her and Parker rested her head on Hardison’s shoulder, she realized that she felt better than she had in weeks. Not perfect–she still missed Nate and Sophie and was still stressed about her new responsibility–but definitely better, and that was a good first step.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
